UPDATE SEPTEMEMBER 20200

The café has relocated and is now in the walkway underneath the Hotel Mets. Its not far from the original location.

___ now back to the original post___

Husband and I noticed the Square Enix Café in Akihabara on one of our previous trips to Japan, back in 2015. That trip, the café was SUPER packed and we decided to skip the line and didn’t make it back before the end of the trip. If I remember correctly, a new Dragon Quest had come out and fans were every where. Since we stopped at the Good Smile X Animate café and it was a good experience, we decided to stop here too.

The café’s themes rotate depending on what Square Enix is promoting at the moment. This time it was SaGa: Scarlet Grace. I’m familiar with the game, so I’ll quote Wikipedia:

The story follows four protagonists pursuing separate missions across the splintered remains of a lost empire; central to the plot is the Fire Bringer, a deity hostile to humanity. Gameplay focuses on the game’s four protagonists exploring the world in a nonlinear fashion, taking part in turn-based battles where skill growth depends on usage in battle.

The Decor

The art for the game was hung on the walls, and quite lovely. Clearly Amano inspired:

…but not actually Amano’s art.

The interior was very modern, black, silver, and white with shiny glass to provide a canvas for each promotion.

The menu

The menu also changes with each promotion and is presented to you as a tablet (an ipad like mobile device) which you use to order and pay. It was kind of awkward but it worked out in the end. You can see a little bit of it in the picture below.

We again, ordered dessert and drinks. I did not get a shot of the dessert, but it was a complex affair of ice cream and churros with candy and syrup.

You are seeing that correctly. Those are roses in my soda. I had a sweet rose soda, with rose flavored jelly in the bottom. SO GOOD! I know it seems kind of weird, but I first had rose tea when I worked at a bubble tea shop in Austin 20+ years ago and I loved it. I’ll try anything rose flavored. Husband had a coke, so no need to show you that.

The souvenirs

Seems like coasters are THE collectible item for these themed cafés and Square Enix was no exception. These came packaged in Mylar envelopes and were proper coasters.

They featured image of the game play from the featured SaGa game.

All in all it was a fun way to waste some time and get off our feet. I would recommend stopping by, especially if you like Square Enix games.